Malacca- Day 1

Malacca- Day 1

I have been clamoring Dear for a weekend getaway- like just pack and go on the whim- because it seemed like a cool fantasy. And we were due for a break anyway. So Dear finally obliged me and suggested one day that we took time off to go off to Malacca for a quick trip.

Ok, as frivolous as I sound, the idea of wanting to go on a weekend getaway was to have something to do during the public hol weekends. But somehow, something will always come up and we have been unable to get away.

So, long story cut short: we are finally on our way!

We decided to drive in the end, after much debate over whether we should take the car for a spin or take the bus. Dear said this is a ROAD trip, so we gotta drive.

It was supposed to be a 4 hour ride- not too long but it felt long enough. :( Road trips are never easy when it is long distance driving at one shot. 

We finally reached Malacca and the first stop was East West Rendezvous which is famous for its Nonya Dumpling and Chendol.

The chendol here is very good. The cold dessert was very refreshing after a long trip on the road in hot weather. The gula melaka was excellent, sweet but light. I came to realise that gula melaka is really the best food product in Malacca. I succumbed to its charm and bought a bottle home on the last day of the trip.

The place is known for its Nonya dumpling but I felt like having something meaty as I was hungry so I went for a bak chang instead. It was savory and meaty, really sedap. However, it really wasn't out of the ordinary as it taste like the good ones that we can find herein SG.

Opposite the East West Rendezvous was Lung Ann kopitiam which served good satay, coffee and toast. The satay stall was not opened yet, so we just bought a coffee (I haven't had my morning coffee!) and went to the hotel to check in first. 

We booked the premier room and we really had VIP treatment. The check-in was at a separate louge and when we went down for breakfast the other day, there was also a separate restaurant that we could eat at.

Our room. Oops, photo a bit too dark here. This is a separate living area from the sleeping area, and it has it own TV too!

The pretty roomy toilet. Too bad there isn't a bath tub. 

More of the interior of the room. 

Our view. Notice the orange lounge chairs which looked so cheery and in fact, was quite comfortable.

After settling ourselves, we decided to walk out to do the sightseeing. As we cut through the shopping malls to the sites, we couldn't resist stopping for lunch at a random chicken rice shop because Dear was hungry, haha.

First stop was Christ Church. I didn't know it was still a functioning church. 

Actually I think the most interesting sight was these well-decorated trishaws. Saw lots of frozen design. 

The weather was super hot. I was sweating buckets. Guess the sight seeing was a little more boring for me because I had been here for a secondary school trip. It was Dear's first visit to Malacca. 

The river that runs through Malacca. 

We walked around George Street and came across the Mamee musuem. 

Besides selling you lots of merchandise, you can also attend mamee noodle making class or make your own cup noodles. We wanted to try the noodle making class but the timing wasn't too suitable. :(

Some cute exhibits at the museum to show you how our childhood snack is made.

The St Paul ruins. The rocks actually are a nice backdrop for photo. Dear asked me to do a America-Next-Top-Model pose but very difficult leh. Think I need more practice, haha.

The next stop was an early dinner at the super famous Capitol Satay for satay sauce steamboat. 

We contemplated driving to Ban Lee Siang which is further away but was worried about parking becuase of the narrow roads and limited parking space on a busy Saturday. The town was full of tourist!
 

We walked all the way there and luckily we were early enough. I had read about the nightmare wait- easily 1 hour!- and told Dear we should be there early. Think we waited for about 20-30 minutes in the end. Pretty ok.

When we were finally seated. They will change the pot of satay sauce for every new customer who sit down and also serve a plate of bread and cucumber. We shared a table with a couple from HK (but they really look and sound like PRCs) which was quite awkward intially as the lady was grouchy from the hot sun and didn't seem happy to have to share a table.

I also would prefer not to share a table, but I also didn't want to wait somemore in the queue. : (

Ingredients for the hot pot was placed in on racks in the restaurant and you can take whatever you want. The bill was calculated by how many satay sticks were left on the table.

So after you take your ingredients, just dip them in the pot and wait for them to be cooked!

I must say it was the most disappointing meal of our trip. The satay celup is highly recommended for any visitor to Malacca and this is supposedly THE place to eat at. But the taste was very bland, so it is kinda no kick and no point queuing for so long to eat watery satay steamboat. Somemore, the sauce in the pot looks thick lor. ARGH.

And we were not the only ones that felt this way. Dear finally tried to break the ice and ended the awkward silence between our new friends at the table by asking where are they from etc. They said they made Malacca a stop on their tour of Malaysia becuase of the highly raved satay celup. I asked them what they think of it after having tasted it. They said it was ok only!!!!!

SO, moral of the story, if you really want to try satay celup, maybe can try the other outlets. Even if the taste is all right only, at least you did not waste your precious time queuing!

After the early dinner, we walked back to the hotel and stopped by the Jonker Street night market. It was a bit early though, some stalls were only just setting up.

Saw super big mangosteens at the drink stall!

At the end of the street, there is a corner where there is a mini food market.

There wasn't any thing interesting to buy, so we continued walking back to the hotel where we stopped by the shopping centre to grab a drink and walk around a little bit more.

We wanted to look for a supermarket, but surpisingly had a little hard time to find it. Shan't dwell on the details. Dear wanted to watch a movie, even a late night movie, even though I was beat.

We finally decided to watch Mad Max at night and we went back to the room to rest first before going out for the movie. I crashed out on the bed and had to be awakened by Dear to go out.

But I am glad I watched the movie in the end. It is not the kind that I would like to watch, but I really find myself enjoying the movie!